Enhancing Feedback

When students and tutors think of feedback, they usually imagine a written summary provided on a piece of paper. While it is important to ensure that students do receive written feedback, there are other ways to provide formative feedback that can improve students’ learning.

Audio feedback

Speaking and recording your feedback using an audio recorder can help students connect with your advice. Case studies have shown that some students like to hear their tutor’s voice explaining the feedback as they find it more personal and accessible than a written summary.

In a case study at the University of Brighton, tutors on the BA Graphic Communication course spoke their feedback into an audio recorder as they were assessing students’ work. Feedback was provided in relation to each assessment criterion, and the grade was only announced to students at the end of the recording. The evaluation of students’ perceptions of audio feedback indicated that it:

Providing audio feedback in myUCA

There are two different ways of providing audio feedback using myUCA. If you are providing feedback on written work, the easiest option is to use the built-in audio recorder in Turnitin’s Grademark tool. Students submit their written work to Turnitin, then the tutor opens up Grademark and simply clicks the microphone icon in the feedback panel on the right:

If you need to provide formative feedback on practical work, you can use an audio recording device such as a smartphone or an mp3 recorder such as an iPod. As you assess the work, record each student’s feedback as a separate audio file. When you have finished, download the files to your computer and name each one, then simply upload each file into the student’s Unit Feedback folder in their course area.